Using the ACS to Introduce Demographic Approaches in Undergraduate Courses

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ABSTRACT This renewal project builds on the successful first five years of progress during the initial award, which focused on utilizing American Community Survey (ACS) data and curricular materials to introduce demographic perspectives to undergraduates in a wide spectrum of courses. This project will make ACS-based curricular materials available to undergraduates in many undergraduate courses in order to expose them to demographic approaches as applied to different subject areas, as well as to pathways toward careers in population related fields. The ACS, as a successor to the US Census long form, provides the potential for undergraduates to explore a wide range of topics. Through this exploration, undergraduates encounter demographic perspectives, in a way that will familiarize them with frameworks, concepts and analysis techniques commonly utilized by demographers, thus exposing them to the field of demography in courses whose content they do not necessarily associate with population studies. This renewal project will update and expand the creation of data and curricular materials that are accessible to undergraduates, by working directly with undergraduate teachers in workshops and follow up webinars, and by enhancing our general use web instructional materials. Further, in response to requests by earlier participants and reviewers, it will broaden the training opportunities by introducing an advanced analysis tier of training for teachers interested in accessing ACS data with more sophisticated software and web portals. In addition, by working with graduate training population programs and the faculty teacher network, the project's website and staff will provide information to interested undergraduates about graduate training and careers in the population field and work actively to connect them with those opportunities.